Our 8th Generation- More Mayors, more Farmers and our first Butcher

      Joh. Michael Schuttenhelm was Michael Schuttenhelm's eldest son. He lived in Aach, Germany throughout his life (1600-1681), and he enjoyed success as a Judicial Mayor and as a Judge in that village. He married a woman named Waldburga in 1628 and later, he married Anna Maria Ziegler on January 22, 1650 (which would've been two years after the Thirty Years War concluded). Michael Schuttenhelm's second son was named Philipp Schuttenhelm. Like his brother, Philipp spent his life (1604-1682) in Aach, and also like his brother, he was married twice- initially to Anna Dustling on January 25, 1636 and then to another Anna on October 3, 1670. Joh. Michael and Anna Maria had at least two children- one of whom is my 7x great-grandfather, Michael. He was born in 1655 and will be mentioned later.
   

Hallwangen, Germany

Untermusbach area

      Michael Schuttenhelm's brother, HannB and his wife, Anna Maria, had a large family. Their first son was named Heinrich (1596-1669). Heinrich was a Metzger (butcher) in Hallwangen and he also served as Mayor in Schrozberg. Cyriacus was the 2nd son born to HannB and Anna Maria. He lived from 1603-1633 and worked as a farmer in the Gruntal area. Jakob Schuttenhelm was born to HannB and his wife on May 19, 1605. He was a farmer and a miller in Aach and on July 5, 1640, he married Walburga Muller. HannB was HannB's 4th son (who can keep track of these names?) and he was born on January 27, 1619. He served as Village Mayor in Horschweiler, Germany, where he died on January 18, 1676. On May 6, 1649, HannB married Anna Gwinner, who gave birth to at least ten children before she passed away on April Fool's Day, 1693.
      Finally, we mention Wilhelm Schuttenhelm's youngest son, Wilhelm, who was the younger brother of both Michael and HannB. We don't know what Wilhelm did for a living, but we do know that he served on the town council at Untermusbach and that he and his wife, Barbara, had a son named Wilhelm HannB ... who was short near Egenhausen and died on May 22, 1636 at the age of 43. I don't have any details on the shooting and don't know if it was the result of an accident, a crime, or the Thirty Years' War.
      As a geographical reminder, Aach is located approximately this many kilometers from the towns that we have encountered so far: Horschweiler (74), Egenhausen (83), Freudenstadt (77), Tubingen (117), Nordlingen (225). Aach is 79 kilometers from Nagold, Germany and 79 kilometers to Zurich, Switzerland.
      Thus, Joh. Michael, Philipp, Heinrich, Cyriacus, Jakob, HannB, and Wilhelm HannB. constitute the 8th generation of our family tree. They lived in southwest Germany during the 30 Years' War and they worked as Mayors, Judges, Farmers, Butchers, Millers, and Town Councilmen.

Wilhelm's Boys- Our 7th Generation

      As noted earlier, Wilhelm Schuttenhelm- the progenitor of our Aach branch- relocated to the small village of Aach, which is a picturesque town which sets near the Swiss border and Lake Constance, in southwest Germany.

Aach, Germany

      Wilhelm farmed there and he had three sons: Michael, who was born around 1553 and died on March 10, 1636, probably in Untermusbach, where he earned a living as a Bauer (farmer) and a Muller (miller) and also served on the Town Council; HannB, who was born circa 1560 and died sometime before 1637. During his lifetime, HannB must have been well respected because he served as Mayor in Gruntal for years; and Wilhelm (born c. 1565-died aft. 1595) who was both a Judge and a member of the Council in Untermusbach, Lacking details about their lives- other than the fact that Michael married a woman with the surname of "Krieger" and HannB married a woman named Anna Maria- it is hard to know how Wilhelm's sons fared in Aach. On the one hand, it is clear that they were well respected in their communities and that they they carried on the family's tradition of being part of the growing Bourgeosie at that time in Europe- a social class that included merchants, master craftsmen, and mayors. On the other hand...my 9th great-grandfather, Michael, and at least one of his brothers lived through, and may have died from the devastating effects of the Thirty Years War, which raged throughout Germany from 1618-1648. The was began as a feud between the Protestant Union and the Catholic League, but it mushroomed quickly into an international conflict. Sweden got involved on behalf of the Protestants and France weighed in to support the Catholics. Other countries were involved too, and for decades, warring armies marched across Germany, plundering, burning property, dislocating citizens, devastating sources of livelihoods, and leaving a trail of death and disease in their wake. Indeed, the 30 Years War is one of the deadliest "religious" wars on record and when the smoke cleared... Wurttemberg had lost aa much as 3/4 of its population and 8,000,000 people had died. 

      Finally, for those interested in such things, it is interesting to note that Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian Calendar in 1582. This calendar replaced the Julian calendar which has been in effect for as long as anyone could remember and it also established January 1 as the beginning of a new year. Protestants rejected Gregory's calendar and would not implement it for more than a century, but Catholics implemented it immediately. Thus, to paraphrase Jean Wilson  (pg. 37), "after going to be on October 4, 1582, they woke on October 14, which (for them) was the following morning!"

HANNB AND OUR SCHWARZWALDER BRANCHES

      The record shows that Hans Schuttenhelm moved from Nordlingen to Tubingen to advance his career and that his son, Heinricus, became a man of considerable influence in Tubingen and surrounding areas. As a graduate of Tubingen University, Heinricus caught the attention of Graf Eberhard im Bart, who rewarded for his work on the reunification of Wurttemberg with a great Coat of Arms and the position of Senior Judge. Thus, Heinricus' three sons- HannB, Burchard, and Georg- were blessed with a lot of social contacts and career options when they came of age. They could have followed in their father's footsteps and became lawyers themselves, or they could have followed in their grandfather's footsteps and pursued careers as master journeymen in one of the trades, but it seems that they became our first landowning farmers. We know that Heinricus' middle son was a Bauer (farmer) and that he died in Baiersbronn and that Heinricus' youngest son, Georg, was a Bauer who died in Dorhan sometime after 1562.
      It appears that farming land with tenants was in their best interest, and so it was with Heinrucus' oldest son, HannB, my 11x great-grandfather, who owned at least two farms in an area near Alpirsbach, Germany, which is in the heart of the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). We know this from a 1534 tax document in Alpirsbach which notes that "HannB Schuttenhelm and Jacob Ruoff, yearly renter, through their joint ownership of farms of Stueckhen and Guerttern" offered (among other things) "3 bushels of grain, ten hens, 9 chickens and 'joyful gift money' in the amount of 14 Batzen." (see Wilson, pg. 33) HannB Schuttenhelm lived in the Vogelsberg Congregation of the 24 Farms at Apirsbach, and he is the first recorded Schuttenhelm in the Black Forest. He is also the progenitor of the Schwarzwald line of Schittenhelms, which according to Wilson (pg.32), represents more than 75% of the Schittenhelms in Europe today.
      HannB was the first farmer in our family. He started the Schwarzwald branch of our family... and his three sons broke off into three distinct branches from there. HannB (HannB's first son) started the Vogelsberg branch of the family, which suggests that he stayed in the Alpirsbach area and may have even inherited his father's farms; HannB's son. Heinrich, started the Gruntal branch of our family (Gruntal is 12 miles north of Alpirsbach); and HannB's youngest son, Wilhelm, my 10x great-grandfather, moved to Aach, Germany (which is within walking distance of the Swiss border) and started the Aach branch of our family.
      HannB's son, Heinrich Schuttenhelm, is one of my great uncles and his descendants are my first cousins (many times removed of course). Many of these cousins were quite successful in their lives, becoming Mayors and Judges in their own right, The same thing can be said for "uncle" HannB's family. His progeny are also cousins of mine and perhaps yours too. Read Jean Sheathelm Wilson's book and you will be blessed to see some of what they accomplished... but to make my work somewhat manageable, I will focus primarily on Friedrich Schittenhelm's direct ancestors because he the Immigrant who brought us to America, Therefore we will turn our attention to Wilhelm Schuttenhelm and his descendants as we turn our attention to Generation 6 of the Schuttenhelm/Schittenhelm/ Shedenhelm family.
      As a minister myself, I can't leave the 16th century behind without mentioning the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation that affected the lives of most, if not all, Germans throughout the century. Religion is a sensitive subject in our own time, but it was downright sacred in HannB's time. HannB was alive when Martin Luther started the biggest theological fire that the world had ever seen by nailing his 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, in protest to the practices that he thought were contaminating the Catholic church. The Pope immediately labeled Luther's protestations as heresy and the fight was on. Luther went into hiding the better part of a year, but his teaching spread through much of Germany, dividing its regions into Catholic and Lutheran. Since the rule at the time was that the citizens of any region or state would worship as their ruler worshiped, many people who had been Catholic forever... became Lutheran overnight! And if their ruler died or was overthrown, the same citizens might well become Catholic again. It was a chaotic time and HannB's sons lived to see Europe's religious differences lead to war. We don't know how much our ancestors were affected by the Reformation (it must have been a lively topic in a University town like Tubingen), but we do know that, while Wittemberg opted for Lutheranism early on, its citizens were free to worship as their consciences dictated, especially if they were Catholic or Lutheran.
   

The Schwarzwald (Black Forest)

Alpirsbach

 

Heinricus Schuttenhelm... and our first coat of arms

       Hans Schuttenhelm's son, Heinricus, was a talented and impressive man. He was born before 1455 and he died after 1500, which means that he witnessed the birthing of the Renaissance in Germany and the dying of the Medieval period in history.
      Universities were appearing in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries and in 1477 the University of Tubingen was founded by Graf Eberhart V (which is the same year he expelled all Jews from Wurttemberg). In any event, the university he founded exists to this day and the record shows that a list of its alumni includes men like Johannes Kepler, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Hans Kung, Paul Tillich, and Heinricus Schuttenhelm. Schuttenhelm must have been a early graduate of the university and it is evident that he became a highly skilled lawyer because Graf Eberhart entrusted him with the task of providing the legal framework required to reunite the two divided parts of Wurttemberg, Germany. The record also shows that Count Eberhart im Bart rewarded Heinricus (whose name is a Latinized version of Heinrich) in three powerful ways: 1) he appointed Heinricus to the position of Senior Judge, which gave him substantial legal power; 2) he gave Heinricus the title of Ritter, that is Knight; and 3) rewarded him with a great coat of arms, which took its "Schildfigur" from the previously mentioned White Horse Tower.
   

      The family coat of arms, originally awarded to Heinricus Schuttenhelm in Stuttgart, Wuerttemberg in 1482. The family motto is "Shuns Vice like Poison," and the unicorn, a symbol of untamable power, was clearly based on the White Horse that Master Heinrich Schuttenhelm painted on the tower at Lauingen. Although German heraldry was not restricted to royalty, it was a significant recognition and something to take pride in. However, it should not blind us to Heinricus' work as a lawyer or the influence and power he would have wielded as a Senior Judge. It seems that Heinricus' father may have been a Master Builder in more ways than one.
      Interested readers should read Laurence M. Wilson's explanation of German coat of arms and the Schittenhelm coat of arms, in particular. Continuing a trend that we've grown accustomed to, Heinricus' wife's name is unknown to us. However, we do know that, together, they had three sons: HannB, who is the first Schuttenhelm ever recorded in the Black Forest; Burkhard, and Georg, all of whom became farmers. Together, they constitute the 5th generation of Shuttenhelm's.

Master Builders and Painters- Generation 3

      In the 3rd generation of the Schuttenhelm/Schittenhelm family, the story continues to unfold in and around Nordlingen, Bavaria. Details about our ancestors are sketchy of course, but the record shows that they continued to do well in their chosen fields of work. Given the growing power of the trades in Germany and the control which guilds exercised over the trades, it is not surprising that Konrad's and Claus' sons continued to make good livings as journeymen and master craftsmen.
      Claus had two sons to our knowledge. Caspar was his first-born and he made his living as a goldsmith. This seems a bit ironic since one of the main theories concerning the etymology of our surname is that the "Schutten" comes from the schutten (pours) that were used in the mining of gold. Caspar's younger brother, Ulrich, lived and presumably died in Nordlingen, but we know nothing else about him.
      On the other hand, Cunz (Konrad) had three sons, two of which left their marks in ways that have lasted to this day. Cunz's first son was Heinrich, was named after his grandfather, He was born before 1410 in Nordlingen and died after 1454 in Lauingen, Bavaria, which is 25 miles south of Nordlingen. Heinrich earned his living as a Baumeister (master builder) and as a Mahler (painter artist), and it appears that he fared very well. We know, for instance, that he painted the White Horse that gave the well-known Schimmelturn (White Horse Tower) in Lauingen, Bavaria its name. In addition, it is likely that Heinrich also painted the hospital in Lauingen and it is speculated that he also built the annex and cloister at Alpirsbach (see Wilson, pg. 21).
     However it was Henrich's youngest brother, Hans, who built the Schimmelturn (pictured below), and it is also suspected that Hans built the cloisters at the ancient monastery at Bebenhausen, which is on the edge of Tubingen, Germany, where Hans Schuttenhelm died sometime after 1455.

Monastery in Alpirsbach

Monastery in Bebenhausen

Monastery at Alpirsbach

Bebenhausen

WHITE HORSE TOWER
LAUINGEN, BAVARIA
BUILDER- HANS SCHUTTENHELM
PAINTER- HEINRICH SCHUTTENHELM

Tubingen on the Neckar River

      Peter Schuttenhelm was Konrad's middle son. He (born bef. 1414- died aft. 1444) was a painter/artist (Mahler). There is no reason to doubt that he wasn't every bit as talented as his brothers, but we don't know anything else about him, In sum, Caspar, Ulrich, Heinrich, Peter, and Hans constituted the 3rd generation of our family tree. Four of the five men stayed in Nordlingen, but Hans found his way to Tubingen, where his son, Heinricus, would be reared, go to college, make a name for himself, and be awarded the first Shedenhelm Coat of Arms!

CUNZ UND CLAUS SCHUTTENHELM- OUR 2ND GENERATION

CUNZ UND CLAUS

 The 2nd Generation of Our Family

                                                                   

      The world in the 15th century was filled with the same sort of breakthroughs and tragedies that we experience today. It was good and evil. It was filled with political intrigue as powerful ruling families struggled to grasp or maintain control, or there were also class struggles as peasants and an emerging "middle class" fought for a greater share of wealth. There were too many battles to recount or even keep track of and there were significant economic and social changes as well.  Cities were growing throughout Europe. Skilled labor was in demand and guilds protected their grip on the markets. Business owners and skilled technicians acquired greater wealth than they had known before and they also began to acquire political power, especially at the local level. Even a cursory glance at the history of the time reminds us that: 1) Jan Hus was ex-communicated by the Church in 1410 for espousing unorthodox views; 2) Constantinople fell to Ottoman forces in 1453, closing a land route to international trade that had been used for centuries; 3) Jews were forced our of Erfurt, Germany (where Luther attended college) in 1458, after their homes were taken from them and sold; and 4) the Gutenberg Bible became the first book printed with moveable type in 1455. It is unlikely that these world events affected the daily lives of our ancestors much- any more than they affect ours today- but it is important and helpful to keep things in context,
      Having said that, we will turn our attention to our family tree. Cunz (Konrad) Schuttenhelm is my 14th great-grandfather and it is not surprising that his father, Heinrich (Haincz) named him Konrad because Henrich and Konrad were two of the most popular first names in the Middle Ages. Konrad died in Nordlingen, Bavaria circa 1436. It appears that he was a successful painter (Mahler) because the record shows that he painted the frescoes in St. Salvador Church in Nordlingen Bavaria (shown below). We don't know that name of Konrad's wife. or the names of many of our distant female ancestors for that matter, because they're lost to history. Therefore, our family tree will not reflect our maternal lines for some time to come.

St. Salvator Church- Nordlingen

      Cunz's brother, Claus, died in Nordlingen some time after his brother did. We don't know what Claus did for a living, but it is likely that, like his father and his brother, he was also involved in one of the trades. Details of their lives are sketchy of course, but it appears that they made comfortable livings within the context of their times.They was tradesmen at a time when tradesmen were in demand. They were in a location where trade was a large part of the economy and the record shows that their children had successful careers of their own.